Rosberg is starting the weekend in Germany the fastest

Nico Rosberg started the weekend before his home race in Hockenheim the fastest. The first free practice ended a good three tenths ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes' closest follower was Sebastian Vettel in a Ferrari. Next in the top ten were Kimi Raikkonen in a second Ferrari, both Red Bulls, Max Verstappen ahead of Daniel Ricciard; both McLarns, Fernando Alonso before Jenson Button; and both Toro Rossa, Daniil Kvyat before Carlos Sainz.

Alonso, who celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday today, held the fastest time in the beginning. In addition, he was one of the racers who faced a lack of grip in the first corner.

In the first forty minutes, he was at the top of Rosberg with 1: 17,030s on soft tires. Vettel held second place on the super soft tires and Hamilton was third on the soft ones as well. Most racers were already putting their fast laps on super soft tires at the time. Verstappen reported completely worn-out rear tires after just eight laps.

When Rosberg made another experiment on super soft tires, he moved his time to 1: 15,517s and although other racers improved as well, he reliably maintained the lead.

The time of rookie Charles Leclerc was within three tenths of a Romain Grosjean in the second Haas race car. A substitute racer at Renault, Esteban Ocon was right behind Kevin Magnussen.

Otherwise, we did not see any drastic events on the track. At the start of training, Valtteri Bottas took care of the spin and later Grosjean for a half turn in the ninth corner.